If I had suggested 30p recipes you’d jump on with “some people only have 10p left” have a nice day searching social media for depressing news and re posting it on here won’t you [emoji106]
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[Politics] Tory meltdown finally arrived [was: incoming]...
- Thread starter TomandJerry
- Start date
If I had suggested 30p recipes you’d jump on with “some people only have 10p left” have a nice day searching social media for depressing news and re posting it on here won’t you [emoji106]
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As someone that's worked in a food bank I know why this wouldn't work. Probably 99% of people are embarrassed that they need to use a food bank. I've seen people come in and then walk out as they were too ashamed to be there. People breaking down in tears because they are there. The idea that they would be 'shamed' at the till for everyone to see would stop many people using the stamps. The solution - which is what you're after - is what the Green Party suggest, a universal minimum income i.e. everyone gets say £500 a month regardless of their circumstances.
They have to be referred from social services, doctors etc for access to most food banks. Problem being that they have to be prepared to actually speak to someone to be referred. Most are too embarrassed to do so.
I think that's a minority. All food banks in Brighton and Hove are referrals only.
That website is so far from reality it's scary. Both the prices and the portions are wrong.
As for 'learn to cook PDQ' - some people can cook, others can't and never will be able to. In the same way I can't do plumbing and never will be able to. The Tory MP that raised this is a complete cvnt with no idea what the real world is.
Deportivo Seagull
I should coco
I’ve never understood the attraction of takeaways or ready meals on a regular basis. TBH, not a fan of ready meals. There should be much more focus on dietary needs and meal prep in schools.
However, a quick look at the recipes show that they are light in protein and I suspect portion sizes are mid leading. Would they really fill you up? Secondly if someone puts something like this together they need to include all supermarkets rather than the cheapest one.
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darkwolf666
Well-known member
Some good recipes on there, shame some are to feed 8, would have been better if they had been consistent with the numbers!
Also a shame you show your true (blue) colours with the takeaways, ready meals, Sky and fags jibe, so lazy!
BBassic
I changed this.
- Jul 28, 2011
- 13,054
I enjoy cooking and, if I do say so myself, I'm pretty good at it.
Honestly though, sometimes I just don't have the energy to cook a decent, nutritious meal. Long day at work, some other stress going on or my brain just can't handle looking through the fridge and deciding on what to cook so I'll throw a ready meal (we call them 'heat and eats') in the oven.
Ditto with takeaways.
It's a psychological thing I think. Similar to how when people are craving chocolate they're actually lacking in magnesium. That's physiological but when I'm craving a ready meal or a takeaway I'm craving simplicity.
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
You think? I was quoting Jack Monroe, the Bootstrap Cook. Maybe you’ve heard of her?
Depressing news because it is depressing thanks to the criminals in charge at the moment.
Lee Anderson was suspended from the Labour Party when he was a councillor so joined the Tories. He received an Asbo.
BBassic
I changed this.
- Jul 28, 2011
- 13,054
I'd not heard of her, thanks for this!
Went to her site and the first thing I saw was about making a pesto with those bags of salad that always end up still being half full by their use by date. Will definitely be making use of that!
- Apr 19, 2018
- 2,134
My other half helps out with a food bank in Brighton from time to time and this is exactly her experience. Almost everyone who goes in is doing so as a last resort, with embarrassment and shame and driven by desperation, often after an extended period of time of doing without to avoid all those things. I think one of the things that surprises people is how many foodbank users have jobs - good jobs too, teachers, nurses etc - that are essential, we can't live without in this area, and yet they aren't paid enough to live within travelling distance of their employment and also have any kind of financial safety net let alone quality of life. Society has gone wrong when the people who deliver essential services are priced out of being able to live in the areas that need them and then they are demonised for their desperation. Vast numbers of professional people are just one unexpected bill away from serious hardship and in some cases being out on the streets - a failed boiler, a major car repair, a family crisis...when a newly qualified nurse might have no more than £30-40 a week left over for food, saving, and non-essentials it doesn't take much.
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
I've just checked with a minister from my church, Emmanuel, and his answer is that we don't turn people away from the food bank if they don't have a referral, but encourage them to have a professional referral for any future visits. That can be from schools, doctors, social services and other churches.
vegster
Sanity Clause
- May 5, 2008
- 28,272
And we live in what is supposed to be the 5th biggest economy in the world. This is a shame on our so called " Society " .
Agree with your assessment of the Tory in question. The way he went about raising this was super clumsy and really undermines what actually sounds like a positive initiative by the Food Bank(s) concerned (and the idea probably had nothing to do with any Tory).
I see nothing wrong with Food Banks offering / referring to other services in order to provide further help to those who are struggling. I think that's great. For a Tory MP to latch onto it the way he did, and message it the way he did ... I think he's done more damage than good really. He's tried to take what should have been a simple positive message of "we can do more nationally, and here's an example of the sorts of things we can look at" and spin it into "Look at this thing here, it proves there's no such thing as a cost of living crisis. Not our fault, it's your fault for not being able to cook/budget". As soon as he tried to connect it to shifting blame away from the government, he failed.
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 36,014
how does £500 UI ensure everyone has enough for food if its been spent elsewhere on rent, bills, etc? and goes to millions not needing it. a "food stamp" system could easily be a card (better, avoids suggestion of selling stamps) who looks at what card people are using.
Excellent post.
Mention to a Daily Mail reader that someone is receivng social security benefts, and they'll almost certainly imagine a track-suit wearing character out of Shameless, happily unemployed and drinking booze and chain-smoking all-day while watching trash on an 80" flat-screen TV. Yet millions of people who claim Universal Credit are in-work, but have to rely on top-up welfare benefits because their wages or salaries are too low to survive on.
The 'trickle-down' of wealth the Tories prattle on about is clearly a load of b*******, as is the Tory mantra that 'hard work is the route out of poverty'; not when people are paid the same low wage or salary irrespective of how hard they work.
It the Daily Mail and other Tories were serious about reducing welfare dependency and reliance on food banks - rather than just pandering to their narrow-minded and ill-informed voter base - they'd demand that companies and employers paid their workers properly: judging by the huge profits made by many major companies (the fuel companies are a good current example), the obscene salaries paid to many CEOs, and the £ millions paid-out annually to shareholders, the money is certainly there to pay workers more, and thus reduce reliance on 'hand-outs'.
Also, if ordinary workers were paid decent wages or salaries, they would spend more in their local shops and amenities, and so boost the local economy to everyone's benefit.
But of course, to criticise companies or employers who pay poverty wages to their workers while paying eye-watering salaries to their bosses is to invite the predictable Tory allegations of being 'anti-business' and 'promoting the politics of envy'.
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Yes, there are a considerable number of children whose parents either never did much cooking or for whatever reason may not have passed on the rudimentary skills involved in the basics of cooking. Additionally, by the time my daughter was at school, domestic science/ home economics had been changed into Food Technology, which I don’t think was of much help to anyone!
On the plus side, there is a load of help available on the internet and Jack Monroe gives excellent advice.
Yes, things take time to change, but, as always when learning new skills, there has to be an element of motivation and self help in the mix.
P.S. I think it is money saving guru, Martin Lewis and a group of cross party MPs who want all primary school children to be taught basic money skills in primary schools by 2030. Bring it forward I say. It is a basic life skill.
A few years back, my wife and I carved out some time and put together a 6-week rotating meal / shopping plan. For a variety of reasons. Controlling the food budget was one, ensuring a balanced diet (which, IMO, must include some "splash out" days: "everything in moderation, including moderation itself" as my dad has always said) with variety of meals was another, and yet another was around making our lives easier.
So in any given week: we have a meal that we cook in advance on a Sunday that will keep in the fridge, and it's a double portion - one portion is then eaten on Mon or Tue, the other on Thurs. Minimises the amount of cooking required on those nights (it'll usually be cooking up pasta or rice for the reheated meal to go on). These are things like bolognese, chilli con carne, stew - filling, cheap, and include veg. There's a fish+veg night every week. Friday's are veg + whatever meat we feel like (Fri being shop night). There's a simple meal for the remaining weeknight that doesn't require too much prep (eg a Chilli Prawn stir fry). Weekend meals are where we generally have the high-prep meals (eg Moroccan Chicken, Roast) and every couple of weeks there's a takeaway or eat out on a weekend.
Every so often we tweak the plan to take something out / add something in to add variety. But what we've got is a rotating meal plan where everything we've cooked we've cooked before, know how to optimise getting it done, minimises work during the week, and means we have 6 "base" shopping lists stored in Google Keep that we simply add/remove things to/from each week ahead of the weekly shop. We probably still spend more than we strictly need to on a weekly shop, but we have generally kept our spend under control and it's 100% made our lives so much easier.
Yes - but this is an interesting thing in it's own right isn't it. How have we got ourselves to a position where we buy bagged mixed salads which cost about three times the price of the raw ingredients (not having a go at you - I have done it myself), and where we buy (not me this time) bagged up pre-grated or chopped carrots, which cost about four times the price of a carrot which we can grate at home. Aside from all the plastic.
This to me is where much of the expense of food comes - the so-called 'added value' and so on.
A few years ago I signed up to a charity that works with supermarkets to redistribute food that the supermarkets were going to throw out. Basically the charity collects the 'waste' food, and then distributes it to various centres, and volunteers sort it all into crates for folk. It's not a food-bank type operation, as that wasn't the impetus (the impetus was to reduce waste, not provide cheap food). Anyway, we pay £3 a week, and on Monday lunchtimes collect a crate of food. You never know what you're going to get, but I can tell you that it is always more than £3 worth.
I initially thought it was just going to be things like fruit and veg getting a bit squidgy. And we do get that. But the amount and variety of other stuff the supermarkets throw out is astonishing. Kelloggs cornflakes, tins of soup a year before sell-by date, Pot Noodles, Weetabix, Milk, Cheese, Crisps, Pringles - it's always an unknown (a whole side of salmon one week). It seems to be that if one tin/box in the pack is dented, they throw the whole lot out. The other thing that has interested me though is the sheer amount of unhealthy crap that we get as well, it's really been an eye-opener, and I have sampled some processed foods that I didn't even know existed (and wish I had never known about - like spicy reprocessed lumps of something that may once have resembled chicken, that leaves a nasty taste in your mouth for the rest of the day).
The one thing we never get is beer!
BBassic
I changed this.
- Jul 28, 2011
- 13,054
I love a bit of meal prep! I tend to do something similar to this for my lunches - more so now that I'm WFH full time.
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
Carers in the UK save the economy £132billion a year. A carer doing 35 hours of caring for their relative gets £67 a week. There are millions of carers in this country, looking after aged parents, disabled spouses, or disabled children, so they don't have to go into a home.
Because they are caring, many don't get the chance to go shopping at various supermarkets to get the best bargains as it is difficult to leave the cared-for person on their own.
There are those who work part-time, and are carers who get nothing because their hours of caring don't tot up to 35 hours.
That is a shameful side of this society, that nobody thinks about.
https://www.carersuk.org/news-and-campaigns/press-releases/facts-and-figures
dsr-burnley
Well-known member
- Aug 15, 2014
- 2,625
How to roast a chicken: Put it in an ovenproof dish, add 3/8ths of a pint of water, put it in the oven at 200 for half an hour followed by 150 for 2.5 hours. Boil potatoes by putting them in a pan with water and boiling them. Boil veg the same way. To say that some people are incapable of doing that is an insult to those you are talking about. They may not enjoy doing it, but it isn't hard. (And at £4.20 for a medium chicken, which will also make a meal of broth later (also easy to do), plus perhaps £2 for veg, then it's not expensive.)
In the same way, you can't do plumbing, but I bet if you had a leak you would turn off the water at the mains rather than let the house flood. You can plumb to that extent.